Root/Documentation/email-clients.txt

1Email clients info for Linux
2======================================================================
3
4General Preferences
5----------------------------------------------------------------------
6Patches for the Linux kernel are submitted via email, preferably as
7inline text in the body of the email. Some maintainers accept
8attachments, but then the attachments should have content-type
9"text/plain". However, attachments are generally frowned upon because
10it makes quoting portions of the patch more difficult in the patch
11review process.
12
13Email clients that are used for Linux kernel patches should send the
14patch text untouched. For example, they should not modify or delete tabs
15or spaces, even at the beginning or end of lines.
16
17Don't send patches with "format=flowed". This can cause unexpected
18and unwanted line breaks.
19
20Don't let your email client do automatic word wrapping for you.
21This can also corrupt your patch.
22
23Email clients should not modify the character set encoding of the text.
24Emailed patches should be in ASCII or UTF-8 encoding only.
25If you configure your email client to send emails with UTF-8 encoding,
26you avoid some possible charset problems.
27
28Email clients should generate and maintain References: or In-Reply-To:
29headers so that mail threading is not broken.
30
31Copy-and-paste (or cut-and-paste) usually does not work for patches
32because tabs are converted to spaces. Using xclipboard, xclip, and/or
33xcutsel may work, but it's best to test this for yourself or just avoid
34copy-and-paste.
35
36Don't use PGP/GPG signatures in mail that contains patches.
37This breaks many scripts that read and apply the patches.
38(This should be fixable.)
39
40It's a good idea to send a patch to yourself, save the received message,
41and successfully apply it with 'patch' before sending patches to Linux
42mailing lists.
43
44
45Some email client (MUA) hints
46----------------------------------------------------------------------
47Here are some specific MUA configuration hints for editing and sending
48patches for the Linux kernel. These are not meant to be complete
49software package configuration summaries.
50
51Legend:
52TUI = text-based user interface
53GUI = graphical user interface
54
55~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
56Alpine (TUI)
57
58Config options:
59In the "Sending Preferences" section:
60
61- "Do Not Send Flowed Text" must be enabled
62- "Strip Whitespace Before Sending" must be disabled
63
64When composing the message, the cursor should be placed where the patch
65should appear, and then pressing CTRL-R let you specify the patch file
66to insert into the message.
67
68~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
69Evolution (GUI)
70
71Some people use this successfully for patches.
72
73When composing mail select: Preformat
74  from Format->Heading->Preformatted (Ctrl-7)
75  or the toolbar
76
77Then use:
78  Insert->Text File... (Alt-n x)
79to insert the patch.
80
81You can also "diff -Nru old.c new.c | xclip", select Preformat, then
82paste with the middle button.
83
84~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
85Kmail (GUI)
86
87Some people use Kmail successfully for patches.
88
89The default setting of not composing in HTML is appropriate; do not
90enable it.
91
92When composing an email, under options, uncheck "word wrap". The only
93disadvantage is any text you type in the email will not be word-wrapped
94so you will have to manually word wrap text before the patch. The easiest
95way around this is to compose your email with word wrap enabled, then save
96it as a draft. Once you pull it up again from your drafts it is now hard
97word-wrapped and you can uncheck "word wrap" without losing the existing
98wrapping.
99
100At the bottom of your email, put the commonly-used patch delimiter before
101inserting your patch: three hyphens (---).
102
103Then from the "Message" menu item, select insert file and choose your patch.
104As an added bonus you can customise the message creation toolbar menu
105and put the "insert file" icon there.
106
107You can safely GPG sign attachments, but inlined text is preferred for
108patches so do not GPG sign them. Signing patches that have been inserted
109as inlined text will make them tricky to extract from their 7-bit encoding.
110
111If you absolutely must send patches as attachments instead of inlining
112them as text, right click on the attachment and select properties, and
113highlight "Suggest automatic display" to make the attachment inlined to
114make it more viewable.
115
116When saving patches that are sent as inlined text, select the email that
117contains the patch from the message list pane, right click and select
118"save as". You can use the whole email unmodified as a patch if it was
119properly composed. There is no option currently to save the email when you
120are actually viewing it in its own window -- there has been a request filed
121at kmail's bugzilla and hopefully this will be addressed. Emails are saved
122as read-write for user only so you will have to chmod them to make them
123group and world readable if you copy them elsewhere.
124
125~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
126Lotus Notes (GUI)
127
128Run away from it.
129
130~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
131Mutt (TUI)
132
133Plenty of Linux developers use mutt, so it must work pretty well.
134
135Mutt doesn't come with an editor, so whatever editor you use should be
136used in a way that there are no automatic linebreaks. Most editors have
137an "insert file" option that inserts the contents of a file unaltered.
138
139To use 'vim' with mutt:
140  set editor="vi"
141
142  If using xclip, type the command
143  :set paste
144  before middle button or shift-insert or use
145  :r filename
146
147if you want to include the patch inline.
148(a)ttach works fine without "set paste".
149
150Config options:
151It should work with default settings.
152However, it's a good idea to set the "send_charset" to:
153  set send_charset="us-ascii:utf-8"
154
155~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
156Pine (TUI)
157
158Pine has had some whitespace truncation issues in the past, but these
159should all be fixed now.
160
161Use alpine (pine's successor) if you can.
162
163Config options:
164- quell-flowed-text is needed for recent versions
165- the "no-strip-whitespace-before-send" option is needed
166
167
168~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
169Sylpheed (GUI)
170
171- Works well for inlining text (or using attachments).
172- Allows use of an external editor.
173- Is slow on large folders.
174- Won't do TLS SMTP auth over a non-SSL connection.
175- Has a helpful ruler bar in the compose window.
176- Adding addresses to address book doesn't understand the display name
177  properly.
178
179~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
180Thunderbird (GUI)
181
182By default, thunderbird likes to mangle text, but there are ways to
183coerce it into being nice.
184
185- Under account settings, composition and addressing, uncheck "Compose
186  messages in HTML format".
187
188- Edit your Thunderbird config settings to tell it not to wrap lines:
189      user_pref("mailnews.wraplength", 0);
190
191- Edit your Thunderbird config settings so that it won't use format=flowed:
192      user_pref("mailnews.send_plaintext_flowed", false);
193
194- You need to get Thunderbird into preformat mode:
195. If you compose HTML messages by default, it's not too hard. Just select
196  "Preformat" from the drop-down box just under the subject line.
197. If you compose in text by default, you have to tell it to compose a new
198  message in HTML (just as a one-off), and then force it from there back to
199  text, else it will wrap lines. To do this, use shift-click on the Write
200  icon to compose to get HTML compose mode, then select "Preformat" from
201  the drop-down box just under the subject line.
202
203- Allows use of an external editor:
204  The easiest thing to do with Thunderbird and patches is to use an
205  "external editor" extension and then just use your favorite $EDITOR
206  for reading/merging patches into the body text. To do this, download
207  and install the extension, then add a button for it using
208  View->Toolbars->Customize... and finally just click on it when in the
209  Compose dialog.
210
211~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
212TkRat (GUI)
213
214Works. Use "Insert file..." or external editor.
215
216~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
217Gmail (Web GUI)
218
219Does not work for sending patches.
220
221Gmail web client converts tabs to spaces automatically.
222
223At the same time it wraps lines every 78 chars with CRLF style line breaks
224although tab2space problem can be solved with external editor.
225
226Another problem is that Gmail will base64-encode any message that has a
227non-ASCII character. That includes things like European names.
228
229                                ###
230

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